Harvest time is approaching within a month or so. Most plants are producing fruit this week, with some turning the shade of purple that signifies they’ve reached the late growing stages.

Dusty Timmons anticipates a good — but not great — harvest season.

Timmons, vice president of commercial viticulture production for Texas Custom Wine Works southwest of Brownfield, said disease and a late freeze have damaged some of the crop. Most of it survived, though, and he projects collecting about four tons of grapes per acre.

“It’s going to be a good harvest,” he said.

Cliff Bingham, who farms near Meadow, initially thought he lost about half his crop when temperatures unexpectedly dipped below freezing April 15. Good news arrived later in the growing season.

“The secondary buds were much more fruitful than what we thought, so more likely we lost about 20 percent,” he said.

Some farmers have experimented with freeze-fighting technology.

Andy Timmons’ Lost Draw Vineyard southeast of Brownfield, for instance, contains a host of wind turbine-like devices that mix warm air into cooler air, giving temperatures a boost. Others have tried pushing warm air from helicopters or burning hay bales near the vines to keep the plants from freezing.

“For the most part, anybody who did those techniques had success,” Bingham said. “(But) our main strategy is to create healthy vines and delayed pruning.”

Terry County is claiming an unofficial title as somewhat of the grape capital of Texas. The county now holds about 1,400 acres, a number that’s grown by about 70 percent each of the past two years, Dusty Timmons said.

“It’s exploded, basically,” he said. “It’s really taken off.”

That increase is mainly due to demand, but environmental conditions certainly don’t hurt.

Terry County’s soil and temperatures are suitable for growing vines, Timmons said, and its dry climate is actually an advantage. Grapes have smaller water demands than cotton and peanuts — the county’s other two main crops — and face disease risks if they receive too much rainfall.

“We’re in a pretty good place for grapes,” he said. “There’s something about Terry County that makes it work really well.”